First of that kind of mud known by the name of “mac.”
The scavengers call mud all that is _swept_ from the granite or wood
pavements, in contradistinction to “mac,” which is both _scraped_ and
swept on the macadamized roads. The mud is usually carted apart from
the “mac,” but some contractors cause their men to shovel every kind of
dirt they meet with into the same cart.
The introduction of Mac Adam’s system of road-making into the streets
of London called into existence a new element in what is accounted
street refuse. Until of late years little attention was paid to
“Mac,” for it was considered in no way distinct from other kinds
of street-dirt, nor as being likely to possess properties which
might adapt it for any other use than that of a component part of
agricultural manure.
“Mac” is found principally on the roads from which it derives its name,
and is, indeed, the grinding and pounding of the imbedded pieces of
granite, which are the staple of those roads. It is, perhaps, the most
adhesive street-dirt known, as respects the London specimen of it; for
the exceeding traffic works and kneads it into a paste which it is
difficult to remove from the texture of any garment splashed or soiled
with it.
“Mac” is carted away by the scavengers in great quantities, being
shovelled, in a state of more or less fluidity or solidity, according
to the weather, from the road-side into their carts. Quantities are
also swept with the rain into the drains of the streets, and not
unfrequently quantities are found deposited in the sewers.
The following passage from “Sanatory Progress,” a work before
alluded to, cites the opinion of Lord Congleton as to the necessity
of continually removing the mud from roads. I may add that Lord
Congleton’s work on road-making is of high authority, and has
frequently been appealed to in parliamentary discussions, inquiries,
and reports on the subject.
“The late Lord Congleton (Sir Henry Parnell) stated before a Committee
of the House of Commons, in June, 1838, ‘a road should be cleansed
from time to time, so as _never_ to have half an inch of mud upon
it; and this is particularly necessary to be attended to where the
materials are _weak_; for, if the surface be not kept clean, so as
to admit of its becoming dry in the intervals between showers of
rain, it will be rapidly worn away.’ How truly,” adds the Report,
“is his Lordship’s opinion verified every day on the macadamized
roads in and around London! * * * * * * The horse-manure and other
filth are there allowed to accumulate, and to be carried about by
the horses and carriage-wheels; the road is formed into cavities and
mud-hollows, which, being wetted by the rain and the constantly plying
_watering-carts_, retain the same. Thus, not only are vast quantities
of offensive mud formed, but puddles and _pools of water_ also; which
water, not being allowed to run off to the side gutter, by declivity,
owing to the _mud embankments_ which surround it, naturally _percolates
through the surface of the road, dissolving and loosening the soft
earthy matrix_ by which the broken granite is surrounded and fixed.”
The quantity of “mac” produced is the next consideration, and
in endeavouring to ascertain this there are no specific data,
though there are what, under other circumstances, might be called
circumstantial or inferential evidence.
I have shown both the length of the streets and roads and the
proportion which might be pronounced macadamized ways in the Metropolis
Proper. But as in the macadamized proportion many thoroughfares cannot
be strictly considered as yielding “mac,” I will assume that the roads
and streets producing this kind of dirt, more or less fully, are 1200
miles in length.
On the busier macadamized roads in the vicinity of what may be called
the interior of London, it is common, I was told by experienced men, in
average weather, to collect daily two cart-loads of what is called mac,
from every mile of road. The mass of such road-produce, however, is
mixed, though the “mac” unquestionably predominates. It was described
to me as mac, general dirt, and droppings, more than the half being
“mac.” In wet weather there is at least twenty times more “mac” than
dung scavenged; but in dry weather the dung and other street-refuse
constitute, perhaps, somewhat less than three-fourths of each
cart-load. The “mac” in dry weather is derived chiefly from the fluid
from the watering carts mixing with the dust, and so forming a paste
capable of being removed by the scraper of the scavenger.
It may be fair to assume that every mile of the roads in question, some
of them being of considerable width, yields at least one cart-load of
“mac,” as a daily average, Sunday of course excepted. An intelligent
man, who had the management of the “mac” and other street collections
in a contractor’s wharf, told me that in a load of “mac” carted from
the road to any place of deposit, there was (I now use his own words)
“a good deal of water; for there’s great difference,” he added, “in the
_stiffness_ of the “mac” on different roads, that seem very much the
same to look at. But that don’t signify a halfpenny-piece,” he said,
“for if the ‘mac’ is wanted for any purpose, and let be for a little
time, you see, sir, the water will dry up, and leave the proper stuff.
I haven’t any doubt whatever that two loads a mile are collected in
the way you’ve been told, and that a load and a quarter of the two is
‘mac,’ though after the water is dried up out of it there mightn’t be
much more than a load. So if you want to calculate what the quantity of
‘mac’ is by itself, I think you had best say one load a mile.”
But it is only in the more frequented approaches to the City or the
West-end, such as the Knightsbridge-road, the New-road, the Old
Kent-road, and thoroughfares of similar character as regards the
extent of traffic, that two loads of refuse are daily collected. On
the more distant roads, beyond the bounds traversed by the omnibuses
for instance, or beyond the roads resorted to by the market gardeners
on their way to the metropolitan “green” markets, the supply of
street-refuse is hardly a quarter as great; one man thought it was a
third, and another only a sixth of a load a day in quiet places.
Calculating then, in order to be within the mark, that the macadamized
roads afford daily two loads of dirt per mile, and reckoning the great
macadamized streets at 100 miles in length, we have the following
results:--
QUANTITY OF STREET-REFUSE COLLECTED FROM THE MORE FREQUENTED
MACADAMIZED THOROUGHFARES.
Loads.
100 miles, 2 loads per day 200
„ Weekly amount 1,200
„ Yearly amount 62,400